The Okavango Swamps in Botswana (figure 1) are composed of a mosaic of islands and wetlands with a pronounced seasonal inundation cycle. The Panhandle entry valley (see figure 1) is mostly permanently inundated, and so is the proximal region of the swamps as the water leaves the Panhandle and spreads out over the alluvial fan (usually referred to as a "delta" but that is strictly speaking not correct). Further downstream the permanent wetlands give way to floodplains and then to grasslands with regular or occasional (during wetter years only) flooding. Salt pans occur both in the lower reaches of the alluvial fan and on islands. Island rims are usually elevated with riparian forests. Outside the region that is flooded the Kalahari desert with its sparse woodlands take over.

I spent my Post Doc time (1999-2001) at University of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg, South Africa) studying the Okavango swamps. This blog contains popular summaries of my studies and all the spatial data used for input as well as results.

Okavango articles and data

• Landsat satellite image data Landsat satellite image data that was used for creating the Okavango maps during my postdoc period at University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa.
• Flooding from AVHRR, ATSR and Landsat quicklook images link to original article Flooding Patterns of the Okavango Wetland in Botswana between 1972 and 2000.
• Geophysiological regions link to original article Portraying the geophysiology of the Okavango Delta, Botswana
• Ecoregion classification link to original article Ecoregion classification in the Okavango Delta, Botswana from multitemporal remote sensing
• Regional topography link to original article The topography of the Okavango Delta, Botswana, and its tectonic and sedimentological implications
• Islands link to original article Channels, wetlands and islands in the Okavango Delta, Botswana, and their relation to hydrological and sedimentological processes

Documents on how I restructured the original data supplied with this blog

• Okavango spatial data organization Re-organization of the Okavango spatial data created during my post-doc period at University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, 1999-2001.